Equal parts protection and perv power

One of the terrific things about Melbourne hosting the opening round of the Formula One World Championship is that it provides opportunities to get fast cars together with smart women, which always makes for a fun day out. I was at such an occasion as part of the warm-up festivities track-side at the annual Mercedes-Benz Ladies Luncheon,

Among this gathering of the converted was a handful of women who comfortably pay the price of a small city apartment every few years to upgrade to the latest, greatest car of their preferred brand.

When asked what was important in a car, they listed power, speed, safety, luxury, technology, high-touch service and driver training. Cruise control went without saying, in efforts to avoid the ever-present threat of multiplying photo cops in Victoria. Oh, and having the odd man genuflect towards them was popular, too.

I’m not joking. The perv factor holds a certain cachet among these gals. I’m sorry to say, I’m yet to have a man bow at me in the street, but perhaps that’s because I drive an Audi Allroad and not a Maserati or tricked-up Merc. Maybe it’s time I traded up.

A common theme was a quasi addiction to the motoring experience. Once they’d come to appreciate what a top-of-the-line car had to offer, the need for those features seemed to become part of their DNA.

Tamara Rapoport, regional sales manager for medical delivery company Medtronic, spoke of a childhood in Queensland with parents who drove Citroëns, so she had the European model deeply embedded from a young age. The first car she bought was an Alpha Romeo Spider which she swapped for a BMW 5 Series. The Beemer proved too conservative, so it was off to Mercedes-Benz and into a CLK 500.

Rapoport admits to loving V8 power and “clocks up way too many points". She hasn’t had a chance to put her foot down yet in her new SL 500 – she took delivery of it just three weeks ago – but is looking forward to opening it up. “I’m a real driver, a very passionate driver," she says. “I love the exhilaration of it and the acceleration. I’ve lost a lot of points but never had an accident."

Safety was high on the agenda for another solid Merc fan, Fiona Nugent-Jones, when she first went for the brand 15 years ago. She’s traded up seven times since then and is convinced she’s alive today because of the level of technology the cars offer.

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“I was attracted because I had a brother in the fire brigade who said he’d never cut a person out of a Mercedes-Benz," says Nugent-Jones, business manager at fashion group Salco. She got a chance to test that out 18 months ago when she and her ML 500 literally went head to head with a semi-trailer that had turned across her path on a country road. With nowhere else to go other than into the fast-approaching back end of the trailer, she went instead with the truck and slammed into its bull-bar.

“The police asked why I went for the front, and I said I’d done advanced Mercedes-Benz driving and learned not to go head-on into a moveable object. So I just went with it," she says.

“Both the police and Mercedes said I wouldn’t have survived had I not been in that car. When I hit the truck, every feature of the Mercedes that was inbuilt for safety saved my life."

Mercedes spokesman Jerry Stamoulis says the company spent €7.4 million ($9.3 million) last year on research and development, undertaking real-life testing on 14 million kilometres of European roads.

“Whenever one of our cars is involved in a serious accident, we do everything we can to be on the scene or gain access to that vehicle later," Stamoulis says. “We have a long-term goal of accident-free driving [which] is very hard to reach."

It’s this dedication, says Nugent-Jones, which ties her to the brand. But she also recommends that any woman buying a car with such advanced safety features do driver training to learn how to react when they kick in.

The widow of mobile phone retailer “Crazy" John Ilhan, Patricia Ilhan, credits a defensive driving course in her first job out of university with keeping her safe on the road.

Her then employer, IBM, forced her to do the course after the company car she was driving ended up in a ditch.

“I’ve since driven with a far more preventative view, and in anticipation," Ilhan says. That’s good, because her everyday car, a Maserati GranTurismo Sport, is a serious piece of machinery.

“Men bow at it in the street," she adds. “It’s their way of complimenting me on my car." Ilhan also owns the top-of-the-line, most powerful Mercedes-Benz SUV to ferry around her four children, aged six to 16.

“I’m not sure of the model, I just know when my daughter [gets] her licence, she’s not allowed to drive this car. It’s too powerful."

Car dealerships are keenly aware of catching such young drivers early, and Mercedes is going after them with the new, cheaper A Class.

In the lead-up to the A Class launch there was a 60 per cent lift in new buyers, Stamoulis says.“We’re trying to get people into the car from a little younger. Once they experience those technologies they say, ‘I want my next car to have that, and more’," Stamoulis says.

Mercedes can cater for that, he says, right down to matching a new car’s colour to a favourite nail polish.

I like the idea of a matte black SLS AMG Black Series – assuming I could I get one. Unveiled in France this month, eight of just 10 coming here have been snapped up. My request would push the local asking price beyond the already-smoking $639,000. But if it made men prostrate themselves, it might just be worth it.